Yes. The white areas in the pictures are overexposed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm going to guess these were shot with a point and shoot camera of some kind?

Scenes with snow are tricky, and usually require some sort of manual exposure compensation to avoid this. These look like the Dynamic Range of your camera was limited, a characteristic of most point and shoot cameras and their small sensors.

It wasn't a point and shoot, it was a Rebel XS. I probably messed them up by trying to edit them.

Thanks for the comments!

Click to expand...

It probably wasn't the edit. Snow, and extremely bright conditions tend to confuse most camera sensors, even DSLR sensors. It blew out the highlights as a result. When you shoot, especially in scenes like these, check the histogram. If the graph goes off the right side, you are clipping your highlights, and you need to compensate by turning your exposure down until the highlights aren't clipped anymore. Same thing, but the opposite if the graph goes off the left side, except that this means you're clipping shadows.

Clipping is a term that simply means you're losing detail. So if you're clipping highlights, it means the sensor is reading it as pure white, and you lose any detail.

It wasn't a point and shoot, it was a Rebel XS. I probably messed them up by trying to edit them.

Thanks for the comments!

Click to expand...

It probably wasn't the edit. Snow, and extremely bright conditions tend to confuse most camera sensors, even DSLR sensors. It blew out the highlights as a result. When you shoot, especially in scenes like these, check the histogram. If the graph goes off the right side, you are clipping your highlights, and you need to compensate by turning your exposure down until the highlights aren't clipped anymore. Same thing, but the opposite if the graph goes off the left side, except that this means you're clipping shadows.

Clipping is a term that simply means you're losing detail. So if you're clipping highlights, it means the sensor is reading it as pure white, and you lose any detail.

Click to expand...

Good to know! I can honestly say I've never used my histogram for anything... ever. I will have to keep that in my mental tool box for my next time out. Thank you!